Come Back to the Raft, Huck Honey
by Dark Rabbit
Summary: Post-Iron Man 3, and with slight spoilers. There's also some Thor 2 in this: With all the damage from the Chitauri Invasion cleaned up, and no new crises for The Avengers to solve, Bruce is starting to feel a little stuck, a little trapped. Then he receives a communication from somebody who really is trapped. Pairing is BrucexLoki, but I am not sure how far they go together.
1. The Pizza-Dreams

"...I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before."  
– Mark Twain, _Huckleberry Finn_

**_Thor_****, and ****_The Avengers_****, and all situations and characters thereof, belong strictly and solely to Marvel Comics. This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material benefit.**

Okay, there's this moment when he and Tony become friends. Tony, who's got the biggest heart in the world, only he doesn't know it. Tony, who thinks he's the this huge asshole, and half the time he's trying to live up to his own reputation. That's what all the booze is about, Bruce thinks: It's him trying to keep the nice part of himself stuffed down where he can't see it. ...Tony, who always wants to give everybody stuff. He's like, still undecided if he even wants to be an Avenger, and there's Tony saying, "hey, Bruce, come live at my Tower in New York! I'll give you a whole floor all to yourself!"

So now he's got a whole floor in a building that's still half-demolished from the Chitauri Invasion. Neat-o. Way to come up in the world there, Bruce. His floor's got special reinforcements. You don't notice unless you look close, but he's gotten good at looking close over the years. Well you can't have the Other Guy rampaging all over Tony's big, special Tower, now can you?

Sometimes he gets really _sick_ of talking about Tony. You think Loki was a diva? He's got nothing on the Head of Stark Industries – No wait, scratch that. _Ex_-Head. Tony's retired now, so he can work full-time on promoting himself. –

Time to start over, this time with a little less _mean_: So first, he and Tony were friends. It was like they were the only ones on the heli-carrier who talked sense, and got along without really having to work at it. Then they got used to the other Avengers. They all just sort of _grew_ on each other. Next thing you knew, they were having shwarma together like they'd known each other forever, and it was good, and it was cool. Then when Tony suggested about Avengers Tower, they all seemed to think it was a pretty good idea (although Natasha refused to give up her nice little rent-controlled place in the Village).

Some of them moved in full-time: Steve did. Before that, he was living in the back of a gym or something, and sleeping on piles of Nick Fury's old gym socks. Bruce did. It was going to be nice not to have to keep hiding out in countries on the other side of the globe for a change, he thought. He found this clinic where they were taking care of the people who were hurt during the invasion. It gave him something to do with his days, made him feel useful. ...It was a way to get out of the Tower during the hours when the repairs were going on.

Tony's back in California most of the time, with his girlfriend. For a while it looks like it's going to be Avenger-time again, when The Mandarin starts making all his threats and blowing stuff up. The military ends up handling that one okay, though. Tony helps out a little. Next thing Bruce hears about is the mopping up, when Tony comes back to the Tower for a visit . – And by the way, to see how the repairs are coming along. They're just fine, and thank you for asking. Don't hurry to come back for another visit. – He's safe. Pepper's safe. And no, they're not planning on having a baby together. Pepper says Tony's enough baby for any woman.

Funny girl, that Pepper.

Bruce gets to know this guy who's studying tissue samples from some of the Chitauri bodies that were left here after the invasion. He's got a lab in Queens, and he invites Bruce to join him. It's not what he used to do, not by a long shot, but it's interesting. It fills up the time after the first wave of victims slows to a trickle and the clinic closes.

Bruce starts to feel like he's got a life here in New York. He's got a stake in what happens. He's got a place to come home to at night. Steve's there, and Fury comes over sometimes (he and Steve are friends). Sometimes Clint and Natasha come over for the evening. Who hasn't been around much, is the Other Guy. It's because there are no extremes here, he thinks. He's never very angry, or very excited, or very happy... He's never very _anything_, really. Is this how normal people live? Bruce is all out of the habit.

It's about this time that he starts having these weird _dreams_, in the warm months of late spring, after Tony's visit in April, when he told Bruce all about what happened with The Mandarin over Christmas: The days are getting longer. He walks home from the subway station with his jacket off, and the air feels warm and moist on his face. Smells carry more. He'll smell the pizza place on the corner, and it's harder and harder to resist. A lot of times he stops and gets a slice, even knowing that Steve usually has dinner cooking at home. What the hell? A little grease-and-tomato-sauce never hurt anybody. Maybe it's the pizza that makes him have the dreams.

Usually when he dreams, it's about the Other Guy. It's how they talk, you might say: You can't let Hulk have much of a chance to be himself out in the real world, but in dreams, what the hell? He can do whatever he wants to do, say whatever he wants to say. Usually he wants to talk about SMASHING. Only this spring of course, he hasn't been around much. For a while there, Bruce just wasn't dreaming. Then when he started to, it wasn't the Hulk he was dreaming about.

At first, he didn't know _who_ he was dreaming about. There was just this _room_: This sterile, white-lighted room. At first, just seeing it, that was all of the dream. He'd be there, and then he'd wake up. After a while, he starts to notice details about the room. There's a table in there. There's a wine bottle on the table, and a stack of books next to it. The light is always on in there, and it's this hurty, bright-white light, like too-strong flourescents, like in a hospital, or in a lab, when they're examining something.

The Other Guy starts stirring after he's figured that one out. _He_ knows about being examined in a lab, all right. He knows enough to last a lifetime. For a while there, Bruce thinks it's Ross's lab he's dreaming about. It's his memories coming back. It wasn't just Hulk the whole time he was in there. Only the details are wrong. The lab was bigger. This space is bedroom-sized, no more. And the details are wrong too. If this is a lab, where's the equipment? Where are the... ...The things... STOP HULK! HOLD HULK! HULK NO LIKE! ...Where are those things?

What's up with a table, and a wineglass, and some books? Tony's girlfriend likes wine, and Bruce likes books. It's like he's mixing details from them around and adding the lab in. He should probably talk to a psychologist about this if it continues.

Then in the next dream he sees who's in the room: Curly, dark hair, and a rough, green shirt, and a defeated posture. At first, Bruce doesn't recognize who he's seeing. Then the guy turns his head, and he knows.

Loki's face is even paler than it was during the invasion, but maybe that's because of the light in here. His green eyes are dull. His face is slack. This is his expressionless-face, the one he wears when... When nobody is looking at him... When he's not thinking about anything. But when did Loki ever _not think about anything_? That guy was always thinking. He was always cooking schemes in that twisted little mind of his, that mind like a sackful of cats.

This Loki looks like all the cats have left. They're all off doing something interesting, and he's in here by himself with _nothing_ to do, nothing interesting, not even anything that's not-interesting. What about the books? He looks like the kind of guy that would read. Maybe he's read them all before? Maybe they're the kind of books nobody _does_ read? Maybe somebody put the _Collected Laws of the Asgardian Internal Revenue Service_ in there just to fuck with him?

About the beginning of June, is when he notices Bruce. It doesn't seem to make much difference at first. He looks at him, and there's this slight difference in the eyes that tells Bruce he sees him. That's all. No words, no smile. – No nasty evil grin and long spiel about Midgard being_desperate_ to rely on _such lost creatures as these_.

Then after a while his lips part. Bruce sees the tip of his tongue come out and moisten them. He's not been used to talking much lately, he thinks. He blinks, and when he looks up there's a little more expression in his green eyes. – A _little_ more.

"You are here? I had expected one of the others. Barton, or mayhap the one with the metal in his chest. – Stark, was it not?"


	2. Puny God, Caged

Bruce looks around. This is a jail cell. It's Loki's jail cell. Good, he thinks, he should be in jail. Deep-down, underneath-murmurs crawl around in his head: LOCKED UP. HULK NO LIKE. He ignores them. "You like it in here?" he asks Loki. "A lot of time to think, huh? What do you think about, me?"

Mean, green eyes look at him. Loki looks dangerous, cornered-animal dangerous. Only how dangerous can he be locked up in a cell, with guards watching him? "I am not so desperate as that."

"Oh, you look pretty desperate." This is nothing but pure gloating, and any other time Bruce would feel guilty. But with Loki? He thinks about the victims he treated at the clinic. He thinks about the injuries he saw, the patients he couldn't save. No, he thinks, he doesn't feel guilty at all. "You called me, didn't you? The... – What was it you called me? – The 'mindless beast', the 'dull creature'. Yeah, you must be pretty desperate to call me."

He goes to sit down. Knees bent, his hands find the surface of Loki's cot. His hands go right through it and he staggers. For a minute his head's... Oh christ, his head and shoulders go right through the wall. Half of him's outside of the cell. He sees sterile hallway, that looks almost like the sterile cell, just the light's a little different, yellower, friendlier. Then he's upright again and back standing next to Loki.

"What the hell just happened?"

Loki's mean, green eyes go over him again. "Your physical body is not here. I had thought that would be obvious, even to so dull a creature as yourself. Do you think I have Odin's dark energy at my command? Would I use it to bring mortals to Asgard if I had?"

He looks down, rubs his wrist with his hand. His sleeve goes up, and Bruce sees silver metal glinting. Loki rubs the bracelet, pushes it up and down in a habitual motion. After a while he changes hands, and Bruce sees there's a bracelet on the other wrist too.

A thought forms. "You don't even have your own magic, do you?"

Loki looks up. His hands spring away from the bracelets like they're red-hot. Bruce sees them just for a moment longer. Then the green sleeves of his shirt slide back into place and hide them.

"What I don't get," Bruce says. "If the bracelets stop your magic, why did he put you in this cell as well... – It's your father, right? It's Odin? He put you here, and he put the bracelets on you. One of those things stops your magic. What does the other one do?"

"Intrusive mortal."

Bruce is getting tired of being raked with that nasty, green-eyed glare of his. "You know, I could just wake up."

"I would call you again."

"Then you did call me?"

Loki's eyes flare for a moment. Then his face smooths. "I called. I did not call you. All-Father sealed my magic, as you discerned. – He attempted to seal it, rather." His lips go up. It's the shadow of a smile, a shade of his old dangerous pride in it, but no more. "Loki, God of Chaos is a powerful being, second only to All-Father himself. The ..._bracelets_..." He spits the word. "...The bracelets seal my magic, but incompletely. The cell is to provide added protection, so vulnerable are the people of Asgard deemed to be, should I be loose among them." His smile widens a little more, and his eyes grow distant. "Odin is right to take such precautions. The Norns have shown me my fate: I will lead the Army of the Dead against Asgard at Ragnarok."

Ragnarok: Thor never mentioned it, but Bruce has talked to Dr. Selvig a few times since the invasion, and he can't shut up about Norse myths, and how exciting it is to see them played out in real life. Ragnarok is way in the distant future. It's the end of all the worlds, when the gods fall. Is Odin planning on keeping Loki here until then? Hulk's voice comes back again: CLOSED IN. WALLS STRONG. **HULK WANT OUT!** Only it's not Hulk that's trapped here, it's the puny god who treated him mean before. Shouldn't he be glad to see him here?

Hulk's never been one for reasoning.

"Listen," Bruce says. "I'm okay if you're stuck in here until Ragnarok. It's probably a long time from now, and that way Earth will be safe from you. Only you were telling me why you called me. Or _how_ you called me, maybe it was? Can we get on with the explanation before I wake up?"

Loki scowls. "Limited, mortal creature. It should be obvious: My power is great, and even Odin cannot seal it fully. I drew all the power that remains in me together. I sent it out. I sought help. You are what was brought to me." He eyes Bruce critically. "I cannot see what good you'll do me."

He's right. Leaving aside all the crap about 'lost creatures' and how 'desperate' somebody would have to be to call them for a moment, just looking at this logically, Loki is right: What good's a dream-guy going to do him, _any_ dream-guy? There's nothing he can do, nothing Tony, or Clint, or fucking Chuck Norris could do either.

"You're right, Loki." Bruce smiles. There's this little cough he does, when he doesn't want people to expect too much from him. He does it now. "I can't even sit on the bed here, how am I going to get you out of a cage? Anyway, I don't like cages much." – Hulk's voice: SMASH CAGE! SAVE PUNY GOD! _Shut up, Hulk,_ he thinks. – "And besides, it's probably time to wake up."

HULK NO LEAVE. Not a good time for Hulk to come out. This isn't his dream. _This isn't your dream,_ Bruce tells him. _It isn't a dream at all; Loki's fucking with us._

You can't talk to Hulk. HULK. NO. LEAVE. SAVE PUNY GOD.

In his dreams, there's the two of them. How's it even going to work here? Bruce has a vague mental image of an Asgardian guard walking by and seeing someone big and green in here, talking to Loki. Only he won't see him will he, not when it's just his dream-spirit here?

**HULK NO LEAVE.** No time to think about that now. Bruce sees Loki's eyes widen and he knows he's bulking up, greening up. He's not here... He won't be here in a minute, it'll be the Other Guy. He thinks about the last time the two of them met, and wishes just for a moment that there'll be another Loki-sized hole in the floor coming out of this meeting. Only he never could tell the Other Guy anything. **HULK SAVE PUNY GOD.** Dimly, with the last shreds of his own consciousness, Bruce hears Hulk snicker. **PUNY GOD DESPERATE. CALL LOST CREATURE.**


	3. Stopping the Bad Guy

He wakes up in his own bed, the next morning, feeling headache-y and really, really tired, like he just spent the whole night SMASHING. Vaguely, at the back of his head where the Other Guy's memories are, he remembers that he sort of did. He's got these dim pictures: Glass that had to be pounded. Sense of surprise from when the top half of Hulk's body went right through with the first pound. Then there's frustration: Apparently he tried over and over again to grab Loki so he could drag him through as well. Pity Bruce can't get Loki's feelings. It must have been scary as hell to see those big green hands coming at him, after what happened the last time.

Hulk seems to have made a pet out of Loki. There's all these different-feelings around PUNY GOD, these warm, pitying feelings, like he's a kitten lost out in the rain. _You stupid-ass, big green monster,_ he wants to say, _don't you remember how he treated you the last time?_ It wouldn't matter if he did, though. Hulk takes care of little things. And apparently Loki's a little thing now, that needs taking care of. HULK HELP PUNY GOD, comes the message in his head.

_No, Hulk,_ he says back. _We don't help war-criminals to escape._ Bruce comforts himself with the thought that neither of them can help Loki, not when they're both ghost-people in his world. He's almost looking forward to the next time they go there, so he can point this out and see Loki's reaction. The thought gets him out of bed, along with the knowledge that SHIELD's cleared Kenji to dissect one of the Chitauri war-ships, and he wants Bruce there today to help.

Turn on the shower. Cold water, the better to get rid of the clouds of LOKI-LOKI-LOKI! HULK-HELP-PUNY-GOD! that are fuzzing his brain (it doesn't help). Towel the hair dry. No clean shirts, because he and Steve keep forgetting to do the laundry, but there's still a few things Tony left behind that he can borrow. Kenji isn't going to care if he shows up in a Megadeth concert shirt with solder-holes in it. The jeans'll do another day, oh and here's a clean pair of socks. Slow down for a mental note that they're seriously going to have to get onto this laundry situation, and then on to the kitchen, where Steve's making breakfast and he's got coffee brewing.

"You look tired." Tony always screams like hell when he's over here for breakfast, because the advantage to having one roommate who's immortal because of Super-Soldier Serum, and another one who shares his body with a big, immortal monster, is that Bruce and Steve can eat pretty well whatever they want. That usually means bacon or ham every morning, buttered toast on the side, and eggs, eggs, eggs! The coffee could be better, Steve hasn't exactly gotten the hang of a drip coffee pot yet, but it's not bad enough to make Bruce step in and fix it himself. Now, as he comes through the door, Steve hands him a cup. "Bet you need this." He watches him take a gulp or two, while he fills his plate. "Have trouble sleeping last night?"

"No." There aren't words to explain what happened last night. What's he supposed to say, Thor's psycho-brother is dragging me into his dreams, and last night he had a nice conversation with the Other Guy? Sorry, but I think I'm going to help rescue a war-criminal in another dimension? ...Only I can't, so never mind, you go back to what you were doing? Bruce takes his plate – Two over easy, on top of pancakes, thank you very much. – over to the table and sits down. "I slept all right."

He salts the eggs. "We really need to do some laundry."

"Won't be today." Steve pours syrup (that also floods his scrambled eggs). "I've got Stay-In-School assembles at three High Schools. The last one's in Jersey. You'll probably be asleep by the time I get home."

_Yeah, and Hulk'll probably be trying to drag Loki out of his cell again._

"What have you got on tap?"

"The Chitauri warship, remember?" Suddenly he wants to talk about what's happening. He wants to talk about it now. If Steve's got any way of helping him, he needs it, because Loki's not dumb, and he won't be the first guy who's used the Other Guy (who kind of, sort of _is_ – Sorry, Hulk!) to accomplish something terrible. "Listen, can you spare a moment before you leave?"

Steve looks at his watch. – American made. Has to be wound every morning. Took Tony _forever_ to find one like that for him last Christmas. – "Maybe five minutes. Ten, if I run to subway station. What's on your mind?"

"I think Loki wants to escape."

Mouthful of pancakes. "Of course he wants to escape. Criminals do." Steve chews. "Why do you say that right now?"

_Because he's using me to do it._ Bruce picks at his eggs. It's hard to have much of an appetite when you spent your whole night arguing with super-villains. "I've been having these dreams, Steve. Not nightmares, like Tony was talking about. They're like out-of-body experiences."

"Like a psychic?" Bruce sees Steve flick a glance at his watch. "Like you can read Loki's thoughts or something?"

"Like I'm right in the cell with him." A look of skepticism crosses Steve's face, and Bruce speaks quickly. "He's magic, you know that. He mind-controled Dr. Selvig and Clint, remember? Now he's bringing me to his cell, but not all of me, just my soul."

Steve still looks skeptical. "Thor said his father was going to seal Loki's magic. He said it wasn't going to be a problem."

_It's still a problem, Steve._ "Listen," Bruce says. "I was there last night. – Me, and the Other Guy. Loki still has enough magic left that he was able to call us there. And the Other Guy likes him. He's not too crazy about cages, and Loki's in a cage, so he feels sorry for him. And before you say how's the spirit of Hulk going to help anyone..." He cuts off Steve before he can talk. "Loki's smart: Do you want to sit around and do nothing while he figures out a way? Because I don't."

Bruce looks down. Oh yeah that's right, there are eggs on his plate. He still doesn't feel very hungry. "Do we have a way of contacting Thor? Like... I don't know. I guess gods don't have forwarding addresses. Or cell phones."

Steve's eating his eggs all right. "I still think this is craziness," he says. "So you've been having dreams, so which of us hasn't? So they involve cages and the Other Guy: Those are both kind of big issues for you. If I were a psychiatrist, which thank god I'm not..." He breaks off. "Nick says Thor's been in touch with Dr. Foster. We could call her, and ask her to get a message to him."

Good. Just knowing there's something they can do makes Bruce feel better. He looks down and the eggs look all right again, even if they are halfway congealed. Pour enough syrup on, and you're not going to notice that. "Today," he says through a mouthful of egg. "We call her today."

Steve finishes his own eggs. "Call Nick." He gulps coffee and takes another look at his watch. "He's got her cell phone number, from when SHIELD had to protect her during the invasion. You call her. Try and explain what's going on." He's up out of his seat, and adding his plate to the teetering stack of dirty dishes in the sink.

"You know, we have a dishwasher."

"Which _you're_ the one who knows how to use." Steve rolls his eyes. "What am I, the maid around here? _You_ load it." Bathrobe off. He's got the Captain America suit on underneath.

"That's going to get you some looks on the subway."

Steve grins. "It always does." He picks up his shield from the corner. "Means I have to get up and give my seat to whatever old lady gets on though. – Call Nick," he says. "Use his cell number, you can probably get him before you have to leave for the dissection. You'll feel a lot better when Dr. Foster knows about this."

He'll feel a lot better when _Thor_ knows about this. And when Thor's told Odin. Bruce pulls out his Stark-phone. "I'm calling right now. And I'll call Dr. Foster after that. – What's the time difference in New Mexico?"

"I have no idea," Steve says from next to the elevator. "She probably won't mind being woken up. She knows what Loki can do."

Bruce dials. He waves, as the elevator doors ping and Steve steps inside. "Enjoy your assemblies."

"Let me know how this comes out." The doors shut and Steve's voice is cut off.

On the other end of the phone, Bruce hears a ring, then another one. Then Fury picks up.


	4. Hulk and the Sleep-Food

**NOOOOOOO!** It comes at him hard, and loud enough to block out Fury's voice on the other end of the line. **NO CALL, NO CALL! OFF PHONE. EYEPATCH-MAN GO AWAY!**

"Screw that," he mutters. "Shut the fuck up, you don't get to win this one." Then, into the phone, "hello, Fury?" Hulk's voice is so loud, he halfway wonders if Fury can hear it too. **NO, NO, NO! OTHER ME OFF PHONE, OFF PHONE NOW!** "Fury?" He can just hear him, this tiny voice, barely audible through all Hulk's yelling. "I ...I need to talk..."

Then a big, green hand's throwing the phone at the wall. Dimly he thinks, _Tony's gonna be pissed,_ as it breaks into about a million pieces. Then he's up off his chair and pacing. Big green fists bang his head. The Other Guy's here; he's here too. It usually doesn't happen like that. Usually it's one or the other.

"**MAKE SLEEP.**"

"No, Hulk," It's his words, but they come out in the Other Guy's gruff growl. "He's using you, don't you get it?"

**MAKE SLEEP!** Hard fists, pounding harder, but Hulk's out of luck, because it's his own hard head they're pounding, not Bruce's fragile one.**OTHER ME MAKE...**

All of a sudden they're down the hallway. Door of the bathroom is in the way... Oops, there it goes. Better remember to call a carpenter after this is all over. Medicine cabinet... Rip! There goes the door of that too. Toothpaste, and pill bottles, and a random tube of Tony's hair gel (where did that come from?) go into the sink.

_What are you looking for, Hulk_ Even while he's asking it, Bruce has a sinking feeling that he knows.

Big, green hands aren't good for picking stuff up. Glass shelves fall, making little glass fragments, that aren't going to be fun for Bruce's human feet, no matter if Other Guy's Hulk-feet can withstand them like they're nothing. More bottles... Steve's multi-vitamins, the bottle of Abilify that Bruce told the SHIELD-doctor was a joke, but he had to prescribe it anyway. And Tony filled the prescription. And then he took like three of them, before he gave up and shoved the bottle in here. Then there's one more bottle... Oh fuck, he's got it.

Tony's Ambien. Big Hulk-hands try and fail to open it, then he just bangs it against the counter until the lid pops off and pills fly all over the room. Hulk-hands scrabbling in the sink, manage to get hold of a couple pills. **EAT SLEEP-FOOD.**

Bruce looks into Hulk's hand with Hulk's eyes. How many... Three, he's got three. It's a joke, for taking down two tons of raging green monster. _Fine, Hulk, you have your fun. I won't fight it._

Glass under faucet... No, big hand won't even fit under faucet. Hulk throws the pills in his mouth and chews. _Bet they taste like shit..._

They do, even when your mouth is Hulk's mouth. Then he's sweeping up all the rest of the pills he can find and throwing those in too.

Then after that, Bruce has time to remember Tony talking about the Ambien. He gave Steve some. They didn't work. Tony said they didn't work for him either. Probably they won't work for Hulk, who's bigger than Tony and Steve put together...

No such luck though, Bruce's years and years of taking no meds at all, has left his body and Other Guy's, a virgin field of sensitivity for whatever drug hits their system. Other Guy has time to lie down. Bruce has time to notice that the marble floor of the penthouse is fucking _cold_. Then he's looking at Loki through blue Hulk-eyes, and Loki's looking back.

"You returned."

"Wasn't my choice." Bruce manages another gruff growl.

Loki smiles like the cat that got the cream. "I know."

"I'm a ghost in your world, remember?" He's still talking, which is because Hulk is letting him talk; Hulk thinks he needs him to do something. Serve him right, Bruce thinks. Neither of us can do it. "Even if I was going to help you, which I'm not, what could I possibly do?"

"I do not need you. Your _Other Guy_ can do what I require. – Hulk!" Loki's smile changes. "You have come back, my friend."

"HULK HELP PUNY GOD."

"Of course you will." Loki looks him up and down. "We're good friends, aren't we?"

Hulk reaches out a big hand. He seems to think he's going to shake Loki's hand. Then, about an inch away, he remembers, gives a grunt of a Hulk-laugh. "SOFT HERE. NO CAN TOUCH." Big hands drop to his hulking green sides. "HOW HULK HELP IN HERE?"

"There's a spell."

Big green head tilts. Hulk's face (and Bruce's) shapes itself into a curious expression. "WHAT A SPELL?"

Soft, insinuating Loki-voice: "Words. I can teach you how to say them."

"Good luck. Hulk's never been very good with words." It comes out aloud

Loki's eyes glow green. "Oho, Professor Banner! You are with us again?" He smiles. "Your green friend will serve my purposes well enough, never fear. All I am going to be needing of you, is your hospitality after he's finished. I will need a place to stay... – My friend!"

"PUNY GOD?" Hulk's there right away.

"Make your Other go away, my friend. We have work to do."

Bruce feels his mind shred. _Dammit Hulk, what the fuck?_ When was the last time it was a fight like this? That time on the heli-carrier, when he practically gave Natasha a heart-attack? Or the time Hulk saved him when he was going to shoot himself? _Seriously, Hulk, you're going to treat me like this ...because of Loki?_ Then the cell's a blur, then Loki's a blur.

"Rikki sitt," he hears Loki's voice.

Then, "R-"

"Rikki..."

"RIKKI..."

"Sitt... Skyli, rapsnotra hverr..."


	5. Getting Ready to Lie to the All-Father

Bruce wakes up with a headache, and the vague sense that he needs to kick somebody's fucking ass. ...No, SMASH, right? He (Other Guy)'s got to SMASH? - Throb-throb-throb. He opens his eyes and bright, hurt-y light flows in. - No, not SMASH, he thinks, because it's Hulk's fucking ass that he wants to kick.

That's when Loki's hands grab his shoulders. "Dr. Banner, I need you."

Loki's got strong hands. Even without his powers... – He is still without his powers, right? He hasn't gotten them back somehow while he was coming here? Please got let him not have gotten them back; this is already bad enough just with him here at all. – Even with those bracelets of his, it's not like he turns into a human with human. He's still all-Asgardian, with Asgardian strength and abilities. ...He grabs Bruce and he shakes him. Bruce feels head bang against the floor, which isn't softened very much by Tony's expensive double-pile carpeting.

"Let go of me." He pulls free (Loki lets him pull free). Bruce sits up, and the room kind of _swims_ for a minute. The Ambien sure as hell affects him, whatever it doesn't do for Steve and Tony. He puts out a hand to support himself. "You don't need me, Loki. You've got the goddamn Hulk."

Loki stands and paces. He's going for that God-King-Descended-to-Earth thing he always did when he was here before, but he can't quite pull it off. His hair's still a mess; he's still just wearing that rough green shirt of his and the loose pants. He doesn't have his powers back, Bruce thinks. That's what it all comes down to.

"Your Other Self is powerful," Loki says, "but his reasoning powers leave much to be desired."

Bruce stands up. _Coffee_, he thinks. _I need coffee._ He hopes there's some left from this morning. If there's not, he's going to have to make some. "So, he's not a 'lost creature' any more?"

"My words left quite an impression." Loki sounds pleased. He follows Bruce into the kitchen, where there is coffee left, Bruce is pleased to see, even though what's left, smells burned and disgusting. He pours some anyway, his hands shaking vaguely from the Ambien. "You're good with words." He holds out the pot. "Want coffee?"

"Mortal filth." Loki eyes it.

Bruce takes a drink. Yeah, it's pretty filthy all right. He goes ahead and pours a cup for Loki. "You still have those bracelets of Odin's?" Catching a look at his wrists: They're there all right, he can see the glint of them below his sleeves. "Get used to it, Loki. You're a mortal now, and you're living with mortals..." – Living? Loki's not fucking living with them. - And let's face it, Steve and I are pretty filthy."

Steve... There's another problem he's going to have to think about...

Loki takes a drink. "_This_ is your much-vaunted 'coffee'?" A snooty, privileged-sounding snort. "Inferior, as all else in this benighted realm."

...That he wanted to come to so badly, just a minute ago... That he forced Hulk to help him get to... This isn't a productive line of thought. Bruce sits down at the table, pushing his breakfast plate aside to make space for the cup. "What are your plans?"

Loki stands by the window. Every now and then, he takes a sip of coffee, terrible as it is. He looks up at the question, and just for a moment his face is bleak. There's no scheming, no overflowing sackful of cats. Then his eyes harden. The corners of his mouth turn up, in a nasty little smile. "Quite obviously, I shall regain my powers."

He sits down. He raises a hand, traces his fingers in the air. It hits him about a second later that nothing's going to happen, and he drops his hand at once. That line of Tony's about the "performance issues," would really come in handy right now ...if he wanted to spend the rest of the day trading quips with Loki. Let the good feeling of schaudenfreude be enough for him, Bruce thinks, as he watches his guest clear a space for himself on the table the mortal way, with his hands, in silence.

"_How_ will you regain your powers?" he asks, finally.

It's weird having Loki here like this, having him in his ...his whatever-it-is, his prison-uniform, or whatever. Having him without his powers, but not with much of an idea, apparently, about how to get by in the world without them. It's like seeing him naked. Bruce almost wants to look away, to give him his privacy.

But he doesn't. Loki stares into his empty coffee cup. Bruce sees his green eyes light for a moment... That's an idea coming, he thinks. Then the light dies and Loki's face goes slack again. "I will find a way."

"But you had one. – Didn't you?"

Loki doesn't look up. "It was nothing." His voice sounds dead.

"Let me be the judge of that." It's his bedside-manner voice. - Oh Jesus Christ, it's the voice he uses with patients, the one that says, "I'm your doctor, I will make everything right." He's fucking using it with Loki, and if he does make everything right for him, it will mean making it not-right for the whole rest of the world. Even if he could make it right. –

And Loki buys into it just like his patients. "It was a thought... Odin canceled my brother's banishment when he showed humility. – When he proved himself 'worthy'."

Standard therapeutic technique, you mirror what your patient just said: "You want to prove to Odin that you're worthy?"

Loki's green eyes flame. "I did prove it. It made no difference to him. It was only afterward that I realized: He had the son that he wanted. And with Laufey dead, I was of no further use."

Bruce sighs. This is not helping his headache. And deep down there is always the awareness that this is Loki, and helping him is insane. "You wouldwant to prove it to him, but you don't think you can?"

"I want to _deceive_ him." Loki looks up. "He would have me play a role of meek submission? I will give it to him again, just long enough to gain my freedom. After that..." He gives Bruce a glimpse of the crazy-evil smile he always wore during the invasion. "After that, when Laufeyson is free, he can choose his own course. - But it is no use." The smile is erased. "Thor is his son."

Him, him, him... God, if he hears "him" again, Bruce is going to scream. "Okay, so you're just going to sit here? Think you can make us do your dirty work for you? Because we won't... You realize, just because he saved you from a cage, that doesn't mean the Other Guy's your friend?" – He is, oh god, he so totally is! _Oh, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk, what have you gotten us into?_ – "He just ...doesn't like cages." Bruce swallows. He forces the doctor-mask back on. "You could try, you know. What would it look like if you were deceiving your father?"

Nasty, angry hiss: "He is no father of mine."

Fine, whatever. "_Odin_ then. What would it look like if you were deceiving Odin?"

Bruce left the coffee pot on the table. Now what's left in the bottom of it is nasty, horrible-tasting, and cold. Loki pours it into his cup anyway. He takes a drink. "I would have to make amends, for the 'crimes' I have been accused of."

Unleashing an alien army on the Earth? Destroying half of New York? "We've already fixed most of the damage."

"Stupid." Loki gives a snort. "Don't speak of what you know not." He finishes his coffee. "I would have to return to Thor's woman. She is mortal, and weak; no doubt she would grant forgiveness easily."

"Dr. Foster? – Jane?" What the hell did they put him in jail for on Asgard anyway?

"She was under protection of the Thunderer." It's quite obvious to Loki, at any rate, whatever it might or might not be to Bruce. "For what that was worth, him being a mere, mortal at the time, and weak. I threatened violence against her and hers. I also made attempts on the life of Odin's own son and heir, but there is no way I can make amends for that, here on Midgard. Forgiveness from the woman would suffice, provided Odin wished to forgive at all."

"You're going to go tell Jane you're sorry."

"Foolish, is it not?" Loki's voice goes all snooty and royal-sounding again. "That a God of Asgard should have to do such to a mortal?"

"Your father – _Odin's_ going to give you your powers back, if you tell Jane you're sorry?"

"He returned Thor's powers for similar." Loki takes a napkin out of the napkin-holder. He picks at it, little papery shreds falling onto the table all around his hands. His voice is light, casual, but his face looks serious, and kind of unhappy (if Bruce wanted to let himself notice). "And I am better at repentance than he."

"That's nuts, Loki." – He's _not_ going to think about him being unhappy. He's not going to let himself get tangled in the feelings of a mass-murdering god and his dysfunctional family. – "There's no way that will work."

"No of course not," Loki says.

But he's going to do it anyway, Bruce thinks. And God help him, he's going to help him do it.


End file.
